Ferrum Performers Keep Jack Tales Alive

Note: This article originally appeared in ALCA-Lines:
Journal of the Assembly on the Literature and Culture of Appalachia,
vol. V (1997): 20-23 (reprinted with permission). In Dec. 2000, the Jack
Tale Players celebrated their 25th anniversary. In August 2012, they observed that they had performed more than 3000 times in thirty-five states and England, including 175 USO shows, and they had traveled more than 500,000 miles. For details on the USO shows, see "All-American, All-Star USO Show, or 'Who Needs Bob Hope?'" in Facebook. The drawing above left was made
by Sam, a 3rd grader at Lee
M. Waid Elementary School, Franklin County, VA, after seeing
a Jack Tales performance in May 2000. Although the pictures on this page are
more recent than the article, the article content has not been updated. For
many more pictures and other information on R. Rex Stephenson, the Jack Tale Players, and specific dramatizations
including tales with female heroes introduced from 1998 on (such as Ashpet, Mutsmag, and The Three Old Womens
Bet), see the following:

In October
1995, at the annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, Ferrum College's Jack Tale
Players celebrated their twentieth anniversary with their 2000th performance.
It was also a historic event because during part of the program that day, the
Players were accompanied by prominent North Carolina storyteller Orville Hicks,
whose very famous older cousin Ray Hicks demonstrated the ancient tradition
of storytelling on the same program. R. Rex Stephenson, founder of The Jack
Tale Players and professor of theatre at Ferrum, combines the roles of writer,
director, actor, musician, and teacher in his work with this group of traveling
performers. In her Historical Guide To Childrens Theatre in America,
Nellie McCaslin has described the work of the troupe as "an innovative
and highly imaginative native program" that "continue[s] to provide
rich content for audiences of all ages" (170). The group's success is largely
due to Stephensons ability to dramatize this material for modern audiences,
using methods which preserve the essential character of both the tales and the
telling.

In 1975,
Stephenson realized the dramatic possibilities in the traditional Appalachian
folk tales when his daughter Janice Lynn brought home a copy of Richard Chase'sJack Tales, and he read the stories to her. Stephenson recalls thinking
to himself, "Boy, these [tales] would dramatize."1 After
obtaining a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Stephenson found
three tales in the National Archives and many more in the homes and communities
of rural storytellers and local historians. Two developments in his research
were particularly important. First, he and Ronnie Davis, an original Jack Tale
Player, discovered the James Taylor Adams papers among Works Progress Administration
(WPA) files from the 1930s and 1940s; Adams' story collection had been given
to Clinch Valley College by his widow, Dicey, and sat neglected in twelve cardboard
boxes in the college archives. Stephenson credits Blue Ridge Institute director
Roddy Moore with convincing Clinch Valley authorities to allow photocopying
and cataloging of the manuscripts.

The second
important development occurred when former Ferrum College president Joseph Hart
invited folktale collector Richard Chase, then a resident of Emory, Virginia,
to Ferrum to meet with Stephenson. Chase had collected the Jack Tales in North
Carolina from the Ward family of Beech Mountain, who could trace the tales to
their ancestor Council Harmon in the 1880s. Harmon had heard them from his grandfather,
who said they came from the early settlers of the United States. Chase had also
worked as a WPA folklore collector in Wise County, Virginia, and published two
books which are still the best-known collections of Appalachian folktales: The
Jack Tales (1943) and GrandfatherTales (1948). Toward the
end of his life, Chase was a valued consultant as Stephenson and his fledgling
players developed their tales, employing a performance style called "story theatre," which Stephenson defines
in his 1994 Teacher's Guide as "a style of theatre that lies somewhere
between story-telling and acted-out play." Stephenson adapted the original
material, blending in traditional storytelling and folk songs, and "The
All-American All-Star Jack Tale Show and Washboard Review" was born.

The first
performance was given in 1975 in the hallway of Ferrum Elementary School. Early
shows were hard to book, recalls Stephenson, but because one original Jack Talers
father was the assistant superintendent of the Richmond school system, the troupe
was invited for three days of performances there; after the News-Leader published
a glowing review called "Simple Jack Educates," Stephenson returned
to Ferrum to find his telephone "ringing off the hook." Since then
the rush has never subsided, with the company appearing in Los Angeles, in Central
Park, in England, at the Atlanta Omni, in a number of USO shows, at meetings
of the Children's Theatre Association of America, and in many other places,
big and small. Stephenson estimates that the troupe gives over one hundred performances
a year and has been seen live by more than seven hundred thousand people. They have
also recorded a videotape (which features three tales: "Jack and the Giants,"
"Wicked John and the Devil" and "Jack and the Robbers"),
and Stephenson and his actors frequently offer workshops for public school teachers,
such as "Using Traditional Tales and Storytellers in the Classroom,"
held in conjunction with the 1995 Folklife Festival and sponsored by the Blue
Ridge Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts/Folk and Traditional
Arts.

Jack, the
hero of these folktales, has been described as an Everyman, an archetypal folk
hero. Audiences unfamiliar with the Appalachian Jack Tales are probably familiar
with Jackas a multi-faceted character from English nursery rhymes such
as "Jack, Be Nimble" and "Jack and Jill"; from many folk
expressions and names such as Jack-of-all-trades, Jack Frost, or Jack-oLantern;
and from English folk tales such as "Jack and the Bean Stalk" and
"Jack the Giant Killer." These same tales appear in southern Appalachia
with such titles as "Jack and the Bean Tree" and "Jack Fear-No-Man."
Chase and others have pointed out that Jack's folktale ancestors are Irish and
German as well as British. As the Europeans who settled in the southern Appalachian
mountains retold these tales, they took on the flavor of Appalachian culture,
through the dialect in which they were naturally told and the details from mountain
life; thus, they represent an intriguing blend of Old and New World elements.

Since he
was reborn in America, Jack has been one of our most vital and appealing folk
heroes because he continues to evolve, adapting to new times and places. He
is many things in many tales, although in Appalachia he always starts out as
a poor son of ordinary mountain farmers. His age varies, but he is usually a
teenager, younger than his two brothers, Tom and Bill or Will. Sometimes he
is a hard worker; however, he is usually the clever trickster or the fool whomay learn a lesson about living sensibly but more often just triumphs out
of sheer luck. Like hiscousins in folktales around the world, Jack often
sets out to seek his fortune or gets caught up in a quest at the beginning of
a tale. Sometimes he has to deal with witches and giants; he is often helped
by companions with magic or super-human powers, and he sometimes takes center
stagein the company of royalty. Chase writes in his preface to The
Jack Tales that "it is always through the 'little feller,' Jack, that
we participate in the dreams, desires, ambitions and experiences of a whole
people" (xi-xii). Herbert Halpert adds, "Here we have an almost mocking
contradiction of what has been called 'the American fairy tale—that
honesty and hard work are the means to success" (187). A member of the
Harmon family once remarked to Halpert, "If I was to name my boys over,
I'd name all of them 'Jack.' I never knowed a Jack but what was lucky"
(187). Even more than the tall tale heroes of great physical strength or fairy
tale princes and princesses blessed with beauty and impeccable virtues, Jack
is an embodiment of wish fulfillment for ordinary people—the little guy
who wins our hearts and triumphs over adversity no matter how weak, lazy, or
foolish he appears at times.

Rex Stephenson's
reincarnations of Jack are the offspring of two developments begun in the 1960s:
a storytelling revival and the dramatic method known as Story Theatre. One of
Stephensons editors, Christian H. Moe, observes that in the Story Theatre
form, "a narrator and actors recite and perform a story almost word-for-word
from its original source (xxv). Stephenson stresses in his Teacher's Guide that his adaptations differ from others "byreturning to both the
storyteller and the balladeer, in role, to provide the narrative." He believes
that "the storyteller's traditional approach to the material [can] be an
intricate and a complementary part of the dramatization." His narrators
also preserve what he calls "the past-tense quality of folk tales,"
a narrative perspective which provides an experience for observers by drawing
them into the tale, reassuring them in a friendly way that even the most frightening
episode will come out all right because it happened in the past and is being
recreated in a safe communal environment. The lively dialogue, sound effects,
and stage movements of the characters within the tales are additional sources
of entertainment. Stephenson's Teacher's Guide very accurately notes
that "the show has delighted young and old with its fast-paced action,
energetic actors, and toe-stomping music."

In his
production notes to The Jack Tales, Stephenson specifically discourages
elaborate staging; he writes,

no attempt
should be made to utilize any type of realistic sets, costumes, or properties.
To ensure that I depend primarily on the talents of the actor, I restrict
the use of set pieces to several 2' x 4' x 2' brightly painted wooden boxes
and two folding chairs or rocking chairs. They are used to form all the settings
and locations. (60)

The Jack
Talers play a variety of parts as they dramatize each tale with minimal props
and basic costumes consisting of gingham-like shirts and jeans held up by bright
suspenders.

Instead
of more traditional staging aspects, Stephenson stresses the importance of sound
effects "used to augment pantomimic action and theatrical conventions"
(Moe 336). His performers, most of them Ferrum College students, use simple,
often homemade mountain instruments such as a cow bell, spoons, washboard, and
washtub bass to accompany their singing of folk songs and to add comedic effect.
The Players occasionally act out traditional ballads such as "The Wreck
of the Ol 97" as a warm-up to the tales, and Stephenson's publisher,
I. E. Clark, makes available an audiotape of the Jack Tale Players music
for the benefit of other theatrical groups.

The acting
methods Stephenson employs are more representational than realistic. "It
is important, " he says, that his actors "realize they are presenting
roles rather than three-dimensional characters" (JackTales 60). A good example of this method is "Jack and the Robbers" (sometimes
told by others as "Jack and the Animals"), which was collected by
Chase and bears obvious similarities to the European folktale"TheBremen Town Musicians"; in fact, the narrator in Stephenson's version
acknowledges, "Theresa fellow over there in Germany by the
name of Grimm that tells pretty much the same story." Over half the actors
in this tale portray animals—a dog, a cat, a donkey, an ox, and a rooster—and
must thus rely on voice and gesture to define and convey their characters. Stephenson's
performance notes emphasize that "Energy is the key, as well as a one-dimensional
portrayal" (Jack Tales 60); reproducing the sounds of the animals
accurately is also very important. Kristina Stump, who plays the front of the
ox in "Jackand the Robbers" on the Jack Tales video,
says that Stephenson once pointed out to the cast, "You can learn a lot
about acting by being a donkey on stage."

The flexible,
no-frills staging has many practical and artistic advantages. Many viewers well
versed in the original material prefer Stephenson's style of adaptation over
more elaborately staged and costumed dramatizations of folk tales with realistic
settings and extended dialogue, like Tom Davenport's film versions of folk tales
with Appalachian settings; the simpler Story Theatre form preserves the spirit
of ageless oral storytelling, focusing on economical action and language to
move us swiftly through the rhythms of the story, and allowing the storytellers
to draw us into their magic circle primarily through their dramatic use of voice,
pantomime, body movements, and sound effects. The uncomplicated nature of the
Ferrum Jack Tales productions requires Stephenson's students to develop techniques
of physical movement probably not emphasized in rehearsal for the standard stage
drama. He writes that "if story theatre is to achieve its fast-paced and
uncomplicated style, the director needs to relyon the actor's ingenuity.
In a clever and unexpected manner, the actor can create trees, bridges, bushes,
show passages of time, or changes in location. Children are delighted by these
small surprises" (Jack Tales 60). The tale called "Jack
and the Hainted House" illustrates these techniques, because the walls,
windows, fireplace, and furniture of the haunted house are created by the bodies
of the actors. What better way is there to bring to life the terror of a haunted
house, while at the same time interjecting some hilarious comic relief in the
interactions between naive Jack and the objects that move around behind his
back?

Ferrum
drama students also learn a lot about adapting original material for the stage
from Stephenson's methodology, which involves them as participants. Because
he was "really keen on improvisation" when he began adapting the tales,
the Jack Tale Players founder customarily began his work with improvised narrative.
He or a student would read a tale aloud, while others acted it out. From this
initial improvisation, Stephenson derives "a basic scenario for the tale
and, after several performances, moves on to scripting and rewrites." The
entire process with each tale, he says, might take two to three years. Although
newcomers to the Players are sometimes surprised to learn that they rarely work
from a script, Stephenson's oral methods approximate one of the most genuine
qualities of the original tales: their variations from teller to teller. A spectator
who sees "Jack Fear-No-Man" one day might encounter a slightly different
tale on another day with an alternate narrator. Richard Chase wrote of the Beech
Mountain tellers that "No two individuals . . . ever tell the same story
exactly alike; nor does the same man ever tell any one tale quite the same twice
over. . . . This is a part of the story-teller's art" (x). Of course, the
drawback of such variation is deciding howto record the story for posterity;
Stephenson finally published a collection of six scripts in 1991,2 though his performers continue to depart from the texts regularly.

In more
practical terms, this type of production can be staged inexpensively and transported
easily, and The Jack Talers schedule often calls for mobility: during
the month of May, generally its busiest travel time, the troupe customarily
performs two to three shows a day on the road, accumulating forty to fifty performances
in a fifteen-day period. In 1996, the Players performed to nearly 13,500 spectators
between mid-May and mid-July. Such a demanding schedule builds students' focus
and leadership, says Stephenson's colleague Jody Brown, chair of Ferrum's Fine
Arts and Religion Division and a Jack Tales veteran herself. "When three
hundred grade-schoolers are waiting for a show," Brown observes, "performers
have to drop petty or nonproductive issues. When the show is the fourth performance
[of the day] and the clock says only 2:30 p.m., performers must be able to draw
on inner reserves to share successfully with each child. The discipline of being
in Jack Tales serves people well, regardless of major or career interests."

An additional
benefit for Stephenson's students is their appreciation of children's theatre,
which Stephenson feels many actors consider inferior to "serious"
theatre. Children are a tough audience, and Stephenson works hard to teach his
actors the techniques which engage younger viewers. "I think I push actors
to be physical," notes Stephenson; "kids' theatre is more 'show me'
than 'tell me.'" The success of his methods is demonstrated in the
accomplishments of Jack Tales alumni with other theatre groups for young audiences;
their credits include leading roles with The Arkansas Arts Center Childrens
Theatre, Richmond's Theatre -IV, and the children's productions of Ferrum's
professional Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre.

Stephenson's production
notes and Teacher's Guide point out several other performance benefits:
his adaptations are constructed to be performed by variable numbers of actors
with different levels of skill, at varying ages. In the Teacher's Guide,
he outlines a dramatization method for educators of younger students which is
essentially the same as the one he practices with his adult troupe: getting
them to understand the story thoroughly enough to narrate the events in sequence,
and then encouraging them to improvise the actions and dialogue of the various
characters and set pieces. Another advantage is the fact that the characters—even
Jack—can be played by actors of any race or either gender, a practice
in the Ferrum Jack Tales tradition that contributes to the universality of Jack's
character. Audience participation may be emphasized or omitted to suit different
sizes or age levels of audiences. (Photo at left is from a 2002 performance
in Woodstock, Georgia.) In "Childrens Theatre and the Lure of the
Mirror," Jack Stokes observes that children's theatre "is a theatre
forced by necessity to do things which would qualify it for the avant-garde
had not that term been reserved for more fashionable opaque theatre" (xix).

The success
of this innovative method of dramatization is confirmed by the reactions of
audiences for over twenty years. A Danville newspaper described elementary children"clapping,
screaming and rolling with laughter." A principal commented, "I
haven't seen our students react more favorably to any presentation since I
have been at Martinsville High School, and that covers a decade" (Stephenson, Jack Tales v). The tales are successful with even the youngest viewers,
as preschoolers have been observed laughing wildly at the horseplay during
the folk song which opens the Players videotape—even before the
first tale begins.

The performances
are also successful with adult spectators, largely because they are not watered
down or prettified like some versions of folktales for children. Devils and
witches are outsmarted; giants are killed; and people aren't always kind
to each other. Stephenson says he must sometimes improvise when schools won't
allow the depiction of death or magical elements such as witches or incantations,
but these features have long been commonly accepted in folk tales by people
of all ages. Stephenson's adaptations make clear that he recognizes and avoids
the common misunderstandings about folktales: that they are merely light and
fluffy entertainment for young children, or that they are told just to pass
on conventional morals. Many other adults have distorted them into shapes intended
to serve these purposes. As Stephenson writes in his Teachers Guide, "Far from being minor amusements, folktales put us in touch with the
values of people. They affirm the creativity of people and show the power of
stories in transmitting cultural principles" (x). Perhaps the most convincing
testimonial to the effectiveness of the Jack Tale Players' methods is reflected
in the words of an elementary school student who declared after viewing a performance,
"When I grow up, I want to be a Jack Taler too" (Stephenson, Jack
Tales v). The effect doesn't seem to wear off as students get older,
either; Christina Boyd was hooked when she saw the Jack Tales as an eighth grader
in Meadows of Dan and couldn't wait to come to the college, where she is currently
a troupe regular.

The Ferrum
group's 1995 performance on the same program with Ray and Orville Hicks seems
an appropriate emblem for Rex Stephenson's approach: blending the creative energy
of youth with timeless methods of storytelling. The effort is ongoing, and though
the vehicles of the tale-telling may be increasingly modern (the Jack Tale Players'
videotape, for example),

Stephensons
tales have always focused on loyalty to his sources. Although he regularly adds
modern references to his history plays in the interest of humor or familiarity,
of his Jack Tales adaptations he says, "I never drop out what's traditional
to get a laugh."

But perhaps
the most important aspect of Rex Stephenson's work is that the troupe has managed
not only to preserve the Jack Tales but to continue discovering them. Once his
group began performing the tales regularly, Stephenson says, "People started
telling them to me." It was soon common for audience members to come up
after a performance and mention a different version of a familiar tale or, occasionally,
a tale Stephenson had never heard. A notable example of this is "Jack's
Lump of Silver," which he believes is "theonly tale ever collected
on the Eastern slope of the Blue Ridge." For Rex Stephenson, the Jack Tales
provide a continual learning experience and an ongoing exercise in loyalty to
Appalachian traditions: during nineteen years, he observed in 1994, "I
have never stopped the research, nor the visits to the mountain families"
(Teacher's Guide).